Fuji Finepix S5500 Review

Overall Rating

Easy to use, straight out of the box. Feels just like a normal SLR in your hand, only lighter (which can save on cameras shake!) And with the ability to add wide Or tele-photo lens's & filters, puts other cameras [in this range], to shame!

Price of accessories (i.e. the lens's and the memory cards) makes it a bit expensive for the 'Photo Opportunist's amateur ............. Though you can now pick up a 512MB Xd card for around £50.00 on Ebay?

OK... I committed a cardinal sin, I bought my camera off QVC UK ... and what a great bargain I got. At only £299 for the camera pack, plus a Leather Carry Case, an extra 128MB Xd Card and a Fuji Euro Fast Charger & 4 Rechargeable Batteries, it puts the so called Specialist Camera dealers to shame... and I'm well chuffed with this mighty little camera.

Straight out the box I was snapping away, with great results, which improved when I started to read the User Manuel (bet you've been there too?) and started to experiment with some of the settings.

So far I've only used the 4M Normal and the 4M Fine settings ... even when just practising, as you never know when you may just catch that Perfect shot... which I have now done several times.

One thing I did find, when shooting in low light, forget about trying to focus on an object that is not lit somehow, as the screen and electronic view finder are useless in this scenario... my only get around is to have a low light illuminating a scene OR using a flash light to illuminate a subject, focusing on it and then turning out the light and snapping away.

The camera does throw off a targeting Green light on half button push, to help with your aim of the lens, but if the camera is not focused ( the auto focus does not work in low light) all you get are blurred shots! And if you use the built in flash, it can turn Pitch Black in to day, which at times can spoil the shot!

I need to play around more in low light, but at present I have not had the time.

However, day time shots, indoors and out and even low dusk shots are simply GREAT. Puts my old Olympus 4Mb camera to shame, I wanted something better, that offered more than a simple 'DIGITAL ZOOM' and with the S5500 I got it with a capital WOW ( WHY do some manufactures rate Digital Zoom as a Plus point??? All it does is CROPS the photo and you can do this yourself in even the simplest of image programs! Give me Optical Zoom every time).

Well, after humming and haring for the best part of a year and finally plumping for the Fuji S5500, I can honestly say it is a joy to have and I only wish it had been available back then ( only I bet it would have been a couple of hundred pounds dearer!) and so to price. This little beauty can be had for around £235.00 + P&P from Dabs.com ( not the best of companies ... 'from personal experience' ..... but when things run smoothly they're fine?) Though some online retailers, that "Claim" to be discount dealers are still listing this camera at around £285 up to £335 !!! ( I'm surprised they think we are that stupid! ).

Would I recommend it... easy... YES, (unless of course you're a professional in which case you can afford an Eos300!) It a great camera for either someone dipping their toe in the water for the first time, as the basic auto settings will give them great pictures from the off, to the more experienced user, upgrading from a lesser mega pixel camera as it gives you the opportunity to point and shot, just as the novice, as well as allowing you to experiment with all the settings, at your leisure, whilst still taking great shots and wait until you load them on to your PC and blow them up, the detail will blow your mind and you'll be asking yourself two questions :-

Firstly, Why did I not buy this camera sooner ( all those duff pictures I took with my old camera!!! )

And secondly, What shall I shoot next ( though your friends and family may soon get feed up with your David Bailey impressions???)

Buy it and enjoy, I know I am.

[ and NO, I'm not employed by Dab's OR QVC ... I'm not employed at all (?). The only advantage of being Disabled ...... I've loads of time to take Great Photo's! and watch the world go by, often making an 'ass' of it's self and great shots for me LOL ]

Members' Comments onmaverick1on1's Review

• damig on 20th Dec 2004

  Thanks "maverick1on1", a good review of a good camera, just a couple of things; if you want cheap original fuji xd picture cards, get them from www.ebuyer.com, they sell a 128 fujifilm card for less than £20 and free delivery. Also this camera costs just £223 from them! I think this is the best camera for that kind of money, and it certainly looks the part!

• kenwood33 on 8th Jan 2005

  What an excellent review and well written it was too! I have a Fuji 5500 and it is brilliant and I also have a Fuji 602Z which is the preceding model and although I was extremely pleased with this one my wife has now got her hands on it and I have bought the Fuji 5500 instead! To be fair I can not make one comment that is bad about this little camera what so ever.

• maverick1on1 on 10th Jan 2005

  UPDATE ON xD Card......
  
  Personally I found the 128MB card very easy to fill up ....... once you get use to all the settings on the camera, you find that you start taking photos of almost everything (much to the annoyance of some!).
  
  As the camera takes great pictures, I found I was hardly deleting any at all, so I bit the bullet and went for a 512MB card ......... and guess how much .......... no where near the listed price of £179.99 from the Fuji website, but £43.89 DELIVERED from ......... ebuyer.com [thanks damig].
  
  The price I paid seems quite high, compared to the likes of Dab's, Ebuyer, etc ......... but when you add in all the extras that I ended up getting in my package, it works out a lot cheaper ............ especially with the Charger unit that I got, which not only works abroad on dual voltages, as well as having a Car Charger lead, but also has a feature, to DISCHARGE the batteries, allowing a full charge, ever so often, which makes the batteries last longer.
  
  All in all, I am still very chuffed with my S5500 ........ only problem I have had though, is other people trying to borrow it, to use themselves ........ hence my buying another one for the wife! ............. and they say it 'Boy's & their toy's'!!!
  
  My next venture with this little beauty is Night Photography ........... and trying out a few Lens Filters ........ here's a tip, if your getting Camera Shake on long exposures ........ get a Tripod, I just picked up a Brand New one, off the ubiquitous Ebay for a £10, delivered (I love my bargains!) ......... so once I've tried my hand at these two projects, I may just post my findings back here.
  
  Enjoy ............. I know I am.
  
  P.S.
  
  Thank you for your comments, kenwood33 my old English teacher would be very happy to hear them, giving how poorly I did at this subject!

• cheapredwine on 28th Aug 2005

  Excellent camera. You can now get for £178 from Pixmania, or, very close to that from other on-line retailers, or, for £260 the camera, 512mb memory card, recharbable batteries with charger + USB memory card reader (which saves time and hassle).
  
  Very pleased with pictures, even against higher pixal cameras.